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Saturn V rocket. Illustration of the Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo Command/Service Module and Lunar Module spacecraft. The Saturn V was the launch vehicle for NASA's Apollo programme of manned missions to the Moon. The rocket consisted of the Launch Escape System tower (foreground), behind which was the Command/Service Module carrying the crew. Behind that a compartment housed the Lunar Module which would land on the Moon's surface, and behind that was the third stage of the rocket, with an engine to propel it out of Earth orbit and onto its trajectory to the Moon. The first and second stages of the rocket (upper left) were equipped with fuel tanks and engines to launch the rocket towards Earth orbit.